Heading into Week 2 of the 2024 NFL season, expectations were incredibly high for the Los Angeles Rams.
Sure, the team came up short in Week 1 against the Detroit Lions, losing in overtime in a game they very well could have won if a few more things shook their way, but there would be no need for a moral victory in Week 2, as the Cards were facing off against the Arizona Cardinals, a team who lost in Week 1 and wasn't exactly perceived as having the talent needed to be a force in 2024. This game would be when Matthew Stafford and company got back on track, and the Rams regained their 2023 form, right?
Nope, they got absolutely hammered, looking like the team that would be drafting with a top-5 pick, while Kyler Murray displayed his vintage OSU form, reminding fans why he won the Heisman Trophy in the first place.
Suddenly down 0-2. will the Cardinals be able to do anything against their division rival San Francisco 49ers? Well, while they may be getting back an unsuspended Alaric Jackson, wins might not immediately follow his return.
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1. Brock Purdy and Matthew Stafford shoot it out at SoFi
When the Rams and the 49ers take the field at SoFi Stadium this weekend, fans will be afforded a chance to see two of the top-five passing offenses in the NFL duke it out in a good old-fashioned Southern California shootout.
Soon, fans will get to see who is a better passer in 2024, the first pick in the 2008 NFL draft or the final pick in the 2021 NFL draft, which head coach can scheme up a better gameplan down multiple key offensive players and who can bounce back from an ugly effort in Week 2 to return to their winning ways in Week 3.
On paper, the Rams actually have a pretty decent chance to get to work against the 49ers, as star strong safety Talanoa Hufanga is coming off of an injury, Ambry Thomas is on IR, and the team is currently starting journeyman DB Isaac Yiadom opposite Charvarious Ward and Deommodore Lenoir, who mostly plays in the slot. The 49ers have allowed 455 passing yards and four passing touchdowns through Week 2, good for the 11th-worst and fifth-worst marks of any team in the NFL, and in Week 2 against the Minnesota Vikings, they allowed Sam Darnold to throw for 257 yards on the way to a 23-17 win in Minneapolis.
Will Stafford, one of the best pure passers in the NFL, be able to surpass Darnold's production, hitting the 300-yard mark for the second time this season? Or will things look more like Week 2, when he fell below 200 yards against a Cardinals defense most talent evaluators considered bad heading into the game? And what about Purdy? He's averaging an NFL-leading 275 yards per game as the 49ers' starting quarterback, and while he isn't what you would call a dynamic athlete, he does have enough mobility to extend plays and find the open man downfield, something Murray exploited extensively in Week 2.
Needless to say, this game has all the making of a true, bleu shootout, even if that doesn't necessarily benefit the Rams.
2. The Rams once again lose the rushing differential
Through the first two weeks of the 2024 NFL season, the Rams have been among the worst teams in the entire league at running the ball and stopping the run, recording just 136 yards on the ground through Weeks 1-2 while giving up 394 to the Lions and Cardinals, a number only two teams have lapped thus far.
Frankly, it's hard to really quantify which is worse.
Heading into the 2024 NFL season, it looked like the Rams had a pretty good strategy in place at the running back position, with Kyren Williams returning as RB1, Blake Coum drafted to be the best RB2 in the NFL, and Ronnie Rivers bringing up the rear as a change of pace option, as he had more experience in McVay's system than anyone else on the roster.
And yet, whether due to the inconsistency up front, the play calling, or the fact that the Rams have played from behind more often than not, Los Angeles really hasn't put much of an effort into controlling the time of possession game on the ground, opting instead to attempt the fourth-most passes of any team in the NFL through the first two weeks of the season.
The 49ers, admittedly, haven't exactly built their gameplan on running the ball either, as after Jordan Mason went nuts in his first game replacing Christian McCaffrey, San Francisco came back to earth in Week 2, with the team's total rushing attempts ranking ninth and their total production ranking 11th at 63 and 282, respectively.
If the 49ers want to make light work of the Rams in Week 3, getting the game done early and celebrating with their legions of fans who always fill up SoFi Stadium, all they have to do is commit to running the ball early and often, as it's hard to imagine LA will be able to do much of anything to stop them unless they seriously change up their gameplan heading into Week 3.
3. The sky continues to fall as the Rams drop to 0-3
While both the Rams and the 49ers are coming off of a loss in Week 2 and have both lost star players due to injury, even now, in their diminished states, it's hard to bet that LA will pull out a victory in Week 3, as they aren't the better team when at full strength and certainly aren't the better team now that a third of their top players – or just about – are either on IR or out with injury.
Even if the Rams learn their lessons from Week 2 and come back correct with a more even gameplan and an ability to protect Stafford better than they did against the Cardinals, they will still probably lose this game due to a talent imbalance, and fans will continue to clamor louder for a three-team trade that sends Stafford to Miami and Bryce Young back to LA for a fresh start in a new offense. Why? Well, because fans are going to fan and after an impressive showing in 2023, the Rams are at least expected to make the playoffs in 2024, if not advance a round or two as part of their progression.
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